Anterior cervical fusion has been an accepted procedure for the treatment of cervical disk herniation as well as cervical spondylosis with associated cervical stenosis.
A microsurgical saw for carrying out this kind of procedure is described in U.S. Pat. appliction Ser. No. 026,038, filed Mar. 16, 1987now U.S. Pat. No. 4,827,615.
The procedure with which this invention is described more fully hereinafter; briefly, however, the procedure is carried out, after preparation of a sterile field, by making a suitable incision, 3 to 4 cm, in the right anterior cervical area. The platysma muscle is identified and incised diagonally in the plane of its fibers and retracted laterally. The plane of dissection is then developed medial to the carotid sheath and lateral to the midline structures. Manual soft tissue retractors are placed superior to the longus colli musculature bilaterally. The bipolar cautery is then used to cauterize the venous plexus usually present at the margine of the longus colli muscle bilaterally. The longus colli muscle is elevated bilaterally and, according to the present invention, a self-retaining retractor as described hereinafter is hooked under the muscle bilaterally.
While there are many retractors available to the surgeon, none is entirely suitable for cervical fusion microsurgical procedures. It is a feature of this invention to provide a retractor, especially constructed and adapted to perform the muscular retraction operations involved in microsurgical anterior cervical fusion operations.